Follow PR Daily on:

Clorox ends up in hot water over blog post on dads

Clorox’s first mistake may have been comparing grown men to “dogs or other house pets.” That’s in the opening line of a blog post titled “6 mistakes new dads make,” which the brand took down but is still available via Google’s cache here.

Quite a few dad bloggers and Facebook commenters took issue with the post’s language and general approach to fathers.

“Words matter, Clorox,” wrote one Facebook critic. “When one chooses to express oneself in a demeaning and contemptible manner towards a large chunk of consumers, I wonder how that's going to work for your bottom line?”

If you’re curious, the six mistakes the blog post listed were:

1. Forgetting to dress kids appropriately for the weather.

2. Putting clothes on backwards.

3. Having kids watch inappropriate TV shows.

4. Forgetting to wipe your child’s face.

5. Letting babies eat off the floor.

6. Taking kids to casinos and similar places.

Chris Routly at the blog Daddy Doctrines says the post clearly is the work of one blogger, not of a PR or advertising team, but that sort of doesn’t matter.

“Clorox has its name on it, and Clorox needs to know that this sort of thing is not okay,” he wrote. “It’s not okay on a new level that might actually make it qualify as a new strain of what-were-you-thinking disease.”

Besides taking down the post, Clorox doesn’t appear to have apologized for nor otherwise mentioned the post on Twitter or Facebook.

A spokeswoman did talk to CNN, however. She said it was “a piece of web content written by a freelance humor writer who helps us on a number of projects. ... We have enormous respect for parents, moms and dads, as they make their way through the early years of parenting. We're in new territory with today's modern families and changing family roles and we appreciate all feedback to help us get it right."